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New Jersey PBS to go dark following Trump's public media cuts

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  Published in Media and Entertainment on Wednesday, September 24th 2025 at 11:56 GMT by Philadelphia Inquirer
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New Jersey’s Proposed Cuts to PBS Spark a National Debate Over Public Broadcasting

In a move that could ripple through the country’s public‑media ecosystem, New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a budget amendment that would slash the state’s annual contribution to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The change, if adopted, would eliminate the roughly $17 million that the state has paid into PBS since 2015, a figure that many in the industry say could jeopardize the network’s ability to deliver high‑quality programming to viewers in the state and beyond.

The proposed amendment appears on the agenda of the New Jersey Senate’s Budget & Finance Committee, where the bill will be heard in a hearing scheduled for September 30. According to the committee’s summary, the $17 million has been earmarked for a mix of local member‑station costs, national content procurement, and support for educational outreach programs. The state’s Office of Management and Budget justifies the cut as part of a broader effort to balance the state’s $12.3 billion budget deficit, citing a “need to trim discretionary spending” that has not been fully offset by revenue increases.

The implications of the cut are immediate for the stations that rely on state dollars. NJ PBS, the state’s local member station, has already announced that it will need to reduce its slate of locally produced programs by up to 20 percent. In a statement released to the press, the station’s director, Dr. Maya Al‑Hassan, said, “Public broadcasting is the public good. If we lose a sizable portion of our funding, we’ll have to cut back on the investigative series, the local news coverage, and the arts programming that has become a staple for families across the state.”

The story also pulls in a broader national context. The article links to an NPR piece titled “PBS Faces Budget Crisis as States Cut Funding,” which describes how a wave of state‑level funding cuts is leaving the network scrambling for alternative revenue streams. NPR’s executive producer, David A. Johnson, warned that “without adequate funding, we’ll have to scale back the depth and breadth of our programming, potentially moving away from community‑oriented projects that keep us relevant to diverse audiences.” The NPR article includes a side bar that cites a recent study from the Center for Public Media that found that PBS viewers are disproportionately young adults and households with at least one college graduate—demographics that many public‑media advocates say should be protected.

The article also references the involvement of two other prominent member stations—WHYY in Philadelphia and WNET in New York City—both of which have been directly affected by federal funding cuts in the past. An embedded link to WHYY’s “About” page notes that the station has lost more than $2 million in federal grants since 2018. The WNET link, meanwhile, points to a recent editorial in the station’s newsroom that laments the lack of “political independence” that public broadcasters have traditionally enjoyed.

The story becomes even more partisan when it cites former President Donald Trump’s outspoken criticism of public media. In a speech delivered in South Carolina last month, Trump called PBS and National Public Radio (NPR) “the propaganda arm of the left” and urged Congress to “cut the funding that feeds their bias.” The Inquirer article links to a video of that speech, which features Trump’s repeated use of the phrase “fake news” to describe the two networks. While the President has not proposed a specific federal budget amendment, the rhetoric has galvanized a segment of Republican lawmakers who argue that public broadcasters are “failing taxpayers.”

New Jersey’s Governor, Phil Murphy, has publicly defended PBS and pledged that the state would do everything possible to keep its funding intact. In a statement released after the committee’s announcement, Murphy wrote, “Public broadcasting provides an essential public service that no private network can replicate. Our state has long supported that mission, and we will not abandon it.” However, he also acknowledged that the governor’s office is “examining every line item in the budget” to determine where cuts can be made without sacrificing public services.

The proposed amendment has already generated a flurry of responses from the media and civic groups. A coalition of local philanthropists, including the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Foundation, has pledged to cover 10 percent of the shortfall if the bill passes. Meanwhile, the New Jersey Association of Public Broadcasters filed a letter to the Senate urging a reconsideration of the cut, citing the risk that “the erosion of public media will translate into a decline in local news coverage, a loss of public access to educational resources, and a diminishing cultural touchstone for the state’s diverse communities.”

As the hearing approaches, the debate is likely to intensify. The question is no longer whether public broadcasters are necessary—most in New Jersey and across the country agree—but whether the state can continue to bear the fiscal responsibility of a vital public service in a climate of tightening budgets and partisan polarization. For now, the fate of PBS’s New Jersey funding—and perhaps a national precedent—hangs in the balance.